K-Drama Review: My Only Love Song

A stuck-up actress (Song Soo Jung, played by Gong Seung Yeon) travels back in time through an old van hanging around the set she was in. Coincidentally, the drama she’s shooting happens to be about the time she travels back into. A period where the love story of On Dal (Lee Jong Hyun) and Princess Pyunggang (Kim Yeon Seo) ensues.

When I first heard about the story, I was intrigued. I’m a sucker for anything with time travel. But as I continued to watch the drama, I got confused whether it was supposed to be satire or a parody of general drama tropes. At times, it felt serious and on others, it felt way too silly to be taken seriously. Eventually, I figured out that it MUST be mostly a parody because of one particular antagonist.

It’s definitely a light watch. There isn’t any big reveal or intricately written plot behind the main events you see. And since it was a parody of some sort, I mostly went with the flow. But from a comedic point of view, it wasn’t as funny as I would’ve liked it to be. Same goes for the romance aspect. There wasn’t really much to work around for me to be invested in it. I guess the writer of the drama was relying a lot on Lee Jong Hyun and Gong Seung Yeon’s brand as a former We Got Married couple.

The second leads, on the other hand, had a bit of a story that made me giggle once in awhile. But other than that, everything just felt mediocre.

Also, I would like to add how misleading the title is: My Only Love Song. There literally was no SONG that had any meaning in the show.

The characters and their development

The main problem that I had with this drama was definitely the characters. There was barely any development, which I personally despise. On Dal and Soo Jung were products of something out of a satire. So, I knew I shouldn’t be judging them harshly. But they were just so unlikable, even if I take in the fact that they are what they are: fictional characters with extreme personalities. One’s a prick and the other’s a bitch. That’s all I have to say about that.

Don’t even get me started on their chemistry. I really wasn’t feeling any of their romantic scenes. Since I’ve been clouded by their awful personas, I was in no mood to see them get it on. The second leads, on the other hand, had more spark in them. But alas, they also didn’t have much development.

In conclusion, I had no favorite character while watching the show and that says a lot.

The acting

Standard. They got the job done and that’s what’s important. This applies to every single actor and actress in the drama.

Even if Lee Jong Hyun and Gong Seung Yeon had to act out such awful characters, they did a pretty good job at doing it. I felt like if I had watched them in We Got Married first, I would be more swayed by their acting. There was just something about them that felt natural. But what can ya do? Their satisfactory acting could not save the half-assed written mess the drama had.

The cinematography

Pretty; a bit hipster too.

The kissing scenes were particularly memorable. The way it was shot and the filters used were nice.

The soundtrack

Nothing to fuss over or look out for.

Overall rating: 4/10

Would I recommend it or not? Not really. Maybe to the fans of Lee Jong Hyun and Gong Seung Yeon as a couple. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really recommend this drama.